July 26, 2011

Well we're eleven days in, and we've been busy. We move in two days. A lot has been done, yet there is a lot left to do. Here is a little peek at some of what we've been doing. Please excuse the pictures, I took many of them quickly as we left the house tonight.

Calder's room: remember that lovely wallpaper. It took two and a half days to get down. At which point I was so tired of working on it that I closed the door for a few days and went elsewhere. Finally returned to prime the walls and ceiling (had been painted to match the wallpaper - ugh!) and painted it all. The color is off in this picture, it's actually a green. Which reminds us all of a toned down version of our old living room.

The downstairs bathroom is now blue - kind of a dirty robins egg. It was a quick paint, sometimes small is good. It was (near) instant gratification. Zac even found a few minutes to install a new light for me.

Living room was the first room to be painted. Khaki/beige - boring I know compared to our last house, but I decided to go more neutral this go round. Hoping it will be easier to swap out the fabrics as I tire of them. The halls though out the house are the same color just two shades lighter.

Piper's room: it's pink! Her current favorite color. Luckily for me she chose a light shade, based on the color name - what else? She's also request stripes which we've yet to get too. Soon, I keep telling her. It was so much fun to have her come into a half painted room and jump and squeal with joy over having a pink room at last.

Lest I make it sound as if I've done this all myself - I must say that my two Madison based sisters have been an immeasurable help in this process, and will continue to be. Without their help painting and watching littles, most of this would not be done.

Zac, along with his friend, have been working on installing a new tile floor in the kitchen in the after work hours. There is so much more that needs, we want to be done. It's slow going, but that's fine. Zac has been a good balance for me throughout these days. As I stress over what's not going to get done before we move in, he gently reminds me that we have forever. I love that... but I still can't wait to get curtains hung and things on the walls.

July 15, 2011

Today was a big day for our family, we closed on our new home this morning. Our for-a-very-long-time home. We're so happy to have found it. We went straight 'home' after our closing. Piper held the new keys. It was a bit surreal going in by ourselves for the first time - we'd been waiting for this day for months now. It didn't have any of our stuff, nor our smell, but it was ours.

We had cake, that Piper and I made yesterday, in celebration of our new beginnings in this place. I think us girls were the most excited about this celebration, as we planned it. Calder was just happy to have been given chocolate milk. Zac busily walked around documenting the house, which we didn't do in our last house and always regretted it, before we put any of us into it.

Then we got right to work. The littles and I attacked this room while Zac pulled up the very (very!) old linoleum in the kitchen. This will soon be Calder's room. Very man's office-ish, no?

All that not so cute wallpaper you see came down. We still have a bit of paper backing to scrape from the walls, then to wash them before we can start painting. But I already feel it's much improved. We forgot to take an end of day one picture, but will first thing tomorrow.

Zac has already met neighbors on both sides of us and a few others from across the street. As my mom says, he's good for that. And many other things - of course.

July 03, 2011

Sorry for the patchy blogging. I've been focused on other things, and just not feeling it. Anyway, last week we went strawberry picking. I'm guessing you know the drill: pick, eat, make a mess of your face and hope that you pick more than you can eat.

It's amazing how much just one year's time can make. Last year, Calder was a 'baby', I feel he's still a baby (my baby) but really he's a toddler. Calder didn't need me to carry him in the carrier. He wasn't helpful in picking but he didn't care too much for eating the berries either. Calder's so touch and go with his like of fruit. Which is shocking to me - I thought everyone loved fruit. By the looks of his face you'd never know he hadn't been shoveling them in hand over fist. Calder did find great entertainment in the flag we needed to place where we stopped our picking. Putting it in the ground, pulling it out and putting it in somewhere else. All the while wearing the sunhat I made for him for our GA trip. It's reversible! Piper's version of the same hat has chickens on it. Smile!

Piper on the other hand loves strawberries. She ate loads, although not nearly as messily as Calder. Unlike last year, she ate only what she picked. And she ended up with berries in her basket. She was so proud. So was I. We were there longer than I expected the two littles to last. I was pleased and we left while it was still fun for them.

We're almost out of jam making that the big project with our pickings. Piper woke really early one morning asking if I'd get up with her. We started making a batch of jam. How excited was she when I set her up with her own knife and cutting board. I gave her the big berries and she hulled them and put them in her own measuring cup. She ended up with one and a half cups and I had to reclaim some of the berry left from her cutting. She and I enjoyed our time cleaning berries.

As I prepared for jam making I realized that my canner was in our storage unit. I didn't feel like going out there to search for it. Instead I searched online (what can't you find online) and followed this honey sweetened no canner recipe. Much to my dismay as I readied jars and lids I found that, save two, my jar rings are also in storage, probably with my canner. Needless to say I had to make do and use pint jars instead of the smaller jam jars and scrounge up all the store bought jar lids (you can reseal those!). It worked, we have 7 1/2 pints of strawberry jam on the shelf and a bit of whole berries in the freezer.

HomeGrownHess : :

I am Emmy, partner to Zac and mama to two beautiful children: Piper and Calder. Together we are HomeGrownHess. We live in Madison where we try to entertain a simple life filled with family, learning and creating (sewing, knitting, and other various 'crafts'.) Here we let those that are not with us on a daily basis get a glimpse into our life. That way everyone can see what it's like to be a HomeGrownHess.